Bugging-in may end up being a more practical decision in the long run as opposed to bugging-out.
If you look around the internet these days, you might get confused about whether it’s better to be bugging-out or bugging-in should a disaster strike. It seems like most of the big name preppers are recommending bugging-out, rather than staying at home. But for most of us, that option may not really be all that practical. Being able to bug-out effectively requires a lot of money and a lot of preparation.
3 Kinds Of Bug-Out Situations
Actually, there are several different types of bug-outs that one might find themselves involved in. They differ in the reason for bugging-out and the destination:
- Bugging-out to another city because of a natural disaster. Before hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the government was telling people in the storms’ path to evacuate. In this case, you end up in a temporary shelter or a hotel. After the disaster passes, you can go back home (assuming your home survives the disaster).
- Abandoning your home to go to a prepared location at the first sign of trouble. This is the luxury version of bugging-out. This process requires the time and resources to buy and/or build an alternate location and stock it for long-term survival.
- Bugging-out to an unprepared location because you have to abandon your home. In this scenario, you don’t have a prepared bug-out location. Additionally, you are forced to evacuate your home due to a breakdown in society. This is what most people who bug-out are thinking they will end up having to do. While the chance of survival for these people will be better than staying at home to be shot, it will still be rather minimal.
Drawbacks In The Bugging-Out Concept
Looking at these options, it’s clear that unless you have a well-prepared location to go to, bugging-out may not be all that good an idea. Oh, I know that there are hordes of people out there who think that they can live off the land. Nonetheless, the reality is that they can’t. Game isn’t as plentiful as it was back in the pioneering days and the population is much larger. With all the people who are thinking they can just hunt for their food, chances are what game there is won’t last long.
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Most of us can’t afford to buy land in the mountains and build ourselves a nice little cabin in the woods. In reality, bugging-out may not be the great option that many tout it to be. In fact, bugging-out may be akin to signing your own death warrant.
Besides natural disasters, the biggest reason for bugging out is a general breakdown of society. Should that nightmare happen, there will be mob violence, theft, vandalism, and all sorts of crime. Being in the city will be outright dangerous… at least, if people know you are there. This fact will be even truer if they know you are there and have a stockpile of supplies.
On the other hand, unless you have that well-prepared bug-out location, your home is the one place you have that is best prepared for you to be able to weather a disaster. That’s where you have your equipment and supplies, along with all the other things that you possess for day-to-day survival.
Bugging-In Is A More Than Viable Option
It’s also easier to prepare your home for surviving an extended disaster than any other location. Since you live there, you can drill a well, plant a vegetable garden, and start raising chickens. All of these things are important parts of preparing to survive the aftermath of a disaster. At the same time, you can prepare your home’s passive defenses so that you are ready to defend it from any attackers.
The problem that most people have with bugging-in is fear. They are afraid that they will be too easy a target for hungry mobs who are roaming the streets. While I’m sure that there is some justification for that fear, I’m not sure that they are thinking things through.
Let’s say that there are hungry mobs roaming the streets and looking for anything that they can steal. This type of situation would be evidence of a total breakdown of society. Unless you have that prepared bug-out location, where are you going to be able to go so that you can avoid that mob? There really aren’t all that many options. Other than concealing yourself out in the woods, which is going to be much harder than most people think, hiding is going to be a problem.
Bug-In Tips: Preparing Your Home For Defense
The best bet for most people when bugging-in is to make their home look abandoned. Then, they can stay there while making sure that they have the ability to defend their home as well. Making a home look abandoned isn’t really all that hard. All it takes is plywood over the doors and windows and for everyone to stay inside. If no light shows through the windows and no noise comes from the house, it’s going to look like nobody’s home.
Defending that home is an entirely different ballgame. There’s a lot more to defending a home than knowing how to shoot a gun. You also need to know the tactics necessary so that you can know how to control the battle. Moreover, you need to know how to set up an ambush so that you can make any fight be as one-sided as possible. Should you have to actually fight against a hostile mob, you need to have a plan to make the battle as short and one-sided as possible.
Part of this task entails setting up your home in such a way that you have a “kill zone.” This concept involves standard ambush tactics. The kill zone is a place where all your defenders can focus their fire, therefore ending the battle quickly. You need to establish your landscaping in such a way as to channel any attackers into that kill zone.
Let me tell you a psychology secret here. When faced with various ways to get from point A to point B, almost everyone will choose the easiest way. Consequently, if you want to get people into your kill zone, make the easiest path onto your property and to your front door go right through the kill zone. If every other way is harder (fences, shrubs, hedges, locked gates), almost everyone will take the path that you want them to.
Conclusion
A well-prepared home, used as a bug-in location, gives you a much greater chance of survival than bugging-out to some unprepared location. That doesn’t preclude having a bug-out plan though. Things may get so bad that you are better off bugging out and trying to live in the woods for a while. Of course, if you do that, you should also plan on coming back to reclaim your home once the hungry mob has moved on.
Don’t think that you need to have only one plan. Since none of us know what the future holds, we must be ready for anything. That means having a number of different plans and bugging-in is just one of them. So, plan on bugging-in, but also think through various scenarios and decide what events would necessitate your bugging-out. Then, create the best possible bug-out plan you can with the resources you have available to you.
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Do you have any additional tips or suggestions for bugging-in? Let us know in the comments below.